Author Archives: Ann Aubry

Two Alumni Turn Science Degrees into Law Careers

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – At first glance, the poster-sized picture in Dan Hefner’s office in the law firm of Leydig, Voit & Mayer in downtown Chicago appears to be abstract art – a thin circle lined with a rainbow of colors and surrounded by hues of purple and blue. The picture, in fact, is anything but abstract. It is concrete proof of Hefner’s passion for science that has carried into his work today.

“It’s a photograph of a fertilized sea urchin egg that I took through a microscope my last day in the lab where I conducted undergraduate research,” said Hefner, a 1990 Illinois Wesleyan graduate who majored in biology. “Do you see the small lines in the cell? In about 10 minutes, it will begin to divide. This is truly its last minutes as a fertilized egg before it begins to become something completely different.”

Hefner understands the need to evolve. He came to Illinois Wesleyan with plans to attend medical school and major in chemistry or biology. By his junior year, however, Hefner noted changes in the medical field with the growth of managed care. “It seemed as though doctors were doing more paperwork and spending less time with patients,” he said. “I didn’t know where this trend would lead, and I didn’t want to get into a profession undergoing such unpredictable transformation. Besides, I didn’t think I would really be happy seeing patients.” Hefner made the transition from Illinois Wesleyan science major to lawyer.

It was much the same for Christopher Raistrick, a 1993 chemistry graduate from Illinois Wesleyan. “My goal was to go into astrochemistry,” said Raistrick from his LaSalle Street office at Adler, Murphy and McQuillen, only blocks away from Hefner’s law office. “I was always interested in space and science. Science articles are always the first ones I read online during my lunch breaks,” he said, nodding toward the computer on his desk.

Raistrick loved his chemistry classes at Illinois Wesleyan, with a special interest in Professor of Chemistry Forrest Frank’s research, in which Raistrick participated his senior year. “The fingerprint technology was really intriguing,” he said. Yet nearing the end of his Illinois Wesleyan days, Raistrick began to question his path. “I still loved forensic chemistry, but I just could not see myself working in a lab eight hours a day.”

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Alum Lends Lincoln Likenesses to Library

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – On Friday, Feb. 6, a display in The Ames Library (1 Ames Plaza, Bloomington) became the temporary home of two Abraham Lincoln photographic reproductions on loan from Illinois Wesleyan alumnus George Allison, Class of 1951.

The prints will join other Lincoln memorabilia, including faculty meeting minutes that announce the University’s closure for the 16th president’s funeral in Springfield, Ill., in the display commemorating Lincoln’s 200th birthday.

The images, which depict a beardless Lincoln posing pre-election at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, were taken by Alexander Hesler on June 3, 1860. “They confirm the power of the man himself,” said Allison. “When you look at his picture, you can see the integrity and the determination of the man even then. You can imagine the effect he must have had on his contemporaries and realize why the images are called the ‘pictures that elected a president.’”

Over 100 years after Hesler made the original glass wet-plate collodion negative, which was damaged beyond repair in 1933 during transit to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., Allison acquired prints of the photograph from his friend, the late King Hostick, a historical document dealer and Lincoln specialist.

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Comedian, Activist Dick Gregory to Speak at Soul Food Dinner

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Join Illinois Wesleyan University in welcoming the multi-talented Dick Gregory to the annual Soul Food Dinner on Sunday, Feb. 15.

The dinner will be held at center court in the Hansen Student Center (300 E. Beecher St., Bloomington) at 5:30 p.m. At 6:30 p.m., Gregory will deliver his speech, “The World According to Dick Gregory: An Evening of Humor and Humanity.”

Press availability with Gregory is scheduled at 4:30 p.m. in the Student Senate meeting room on the second floor of the Hansen Student Center.

Tickets for the dinner are $10, and IWU students can use their meal exchange privileges. Sponsored by the IWU Student Senate, the keynote speech is free and open to the public.

Throughout his life, Gregory has taken on many titles: comedian, civil rights activist, author, philosopher, actor, nutritionist, recording artist, anti-drug advocate and cancer survivor. However, he is best known for his social satire and comedy, which he first performed while serving in the army in the 1950s. Upon moving to Chicago to pursue a professional career in comedy, Gregory and contemporaries such as Bill Cosby, Godfrey Cambridge and Nipsey Russell avoided performing minstrel comedy, which pokes fun at stereotypes of African Americans. Their redirection of the comedy scene left white audiences with a new perception of African-American comedians.

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State Farm Continues Grant for Action Research Center

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – For the third consecutive year, Illinois Wesleyan University’s Action Research Center (ARC) has been awarded a $55,000 grant from the State Farm Companies Foundation.

“The ARC program has had a positive impact on the students, community, Illinois Wesleyan University and State Farm,” says Kathy Payne, senior director of Community Relations at State Farm. “We are proud to continue our support in 2009.”

According to ARC Coordinator Deborah Halperin, the grant is an affirmation of the positive efforts of the program. “We are so grateful to State Farm for believing in ARC,” said Halperin, who called the partnership “critical” to the continued growth of the ARC, which allows students to provide research and assistance to area not-for-profit organizations. “This is much more than a financial relationship. ARC can achieve great things because State Farm is a resource for us on so many levels.”

The ARC program was created in 2003 as part of the University’s ongoing efforts to involve Illinois Wesleyan students with the community, while providing them with a chance to develop applied research skills. State Farm funding supports important ARC programs such as the Not-for-Profit Leadership Workshop series, the Get on Board initiative to promote Illinois Wesleyan student participation on not-for-profit Boards of Directors and the two community-focused WESN radio shows: Radio Latino and Community Connections.

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Students Receive CPA Society Scholarships

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Two Illinois Wesleyan accounting majors, Karl Albrecht and Sarah Micale, have been awarded Illinois Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Society scholarships and are interning with different accounting firms this spring.

According to accounting professor Gerald Olson, the scholarship was created for individuals planning to sit for the CPA exam their final year of college.

Junior Karl Albrecht applied for a book scholarship from the CPA Society and will receive $500 to cover his textbooks next semester. Albrecht is interning at Deloitte and Touche in Chicago working in the audit division. “Hopefully this internship will give me a better feel for the business world,” said Albrecht.

Junior Sarah Micale also received a scholarship. Micale is currently a tax intern at RSM McGladrey in Chicago in the net high worth service line doing tax returns.

Earlier this semester, Jeffrey Marinier was also awarded a CPA Society Scholarship.

Faculty to Perform Rare Repertoire by African American Composers

Associate Professor of Voice Carren Moham, soprano, accompanied by Associate Professor of Piano R. Kent Cook, will give a recital of songs by African American composers on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m.

Free and open to the public, the performance will take place at St. John’s Lutheran Church (1617 East Emerson St., Bloomington).

The recital, given in celebration of Black History Month, features both art songs and spirituals composed by African Americans, many of which have rarely been performed since the 1940s.

“In the first half of the 20th century, it was almost impossible for black composers to get their music published, and it was even harder for women,” said Moham, who has done extensive research in the past 14 years on the virtually unknown and unpublished art songs of African-American composers. “Many black composers passed their music around to friends.”

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Mohan Selected for Young Observer Program

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University Chemistry Professor Ram Mohan has been selected for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Young Observer Program.

Mohan, who was honored with the Earl H. and Marian A. Beling Professorship in the Natural Sciences at Illinois Wesleyan in 2008, received the IUPAC award on the basis of his distinguished research on environmentally friendly processes for chemists to use at pharmaceutical and other companies. As the recipient of this honor, Mohan will be a special guest at the summer 2009 IUPAC meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.

Established by the U.S. National Committee (USNC) for IUPAC in 1977 to foster interactions with internationally acclaimed scientists in various fields, the Young Observer Program strives to introduce the work of IUPAC to a new generation of distinguished researchers and to provide an opportunity to address international scientific policy issues.

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Professor Recalls John Updike’s Visit to Campus

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The passing of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Updike on Tuesday evoked memories of his visit to the Illinois Wesleyan University campus, and the thoughts of Updike scholar James Plath, a professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan.

“What John Updike has done for American literature is astounding,” said Plath, who has studied Updike for more than 20 years, including working closely with the novelist while editing the book Conversations with John Updike in 1994. “His work connects us with our American literary past, and he is forever a part of that now.” Updike died Tuesday at the age of 76 after a battle with lung cancer.

Plath discovered the works of Updike in an English class at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. “I didn’t choose to be an Updike scholar, he chose me,” he said. “His work spoke to me in ways other writers hadn’t.” Plath decided to write his dissertation on Updike, and began a correspondence with the celebrated author. “He didn’t do my work for me, but he was always gracious,” said Plath, who wrote his dissertation on “The Painterly Aspects of John Updike’s Fiction.”

Updike was featured speaker at the 1993 Hemingway Days’ Writers’ Workshop & Conference in Key West, which Plath directed from 1986-96. “That was the first time I met Updike face-to-face,” said Plath, who spoke with the novelist as he sat for a portrait painted by Hemingway’s grandson, artist Edward Hemingway. “We visited Edward Hemingway’s first art exhibition in Key West. Updike, who was a skilled critic of the arts, pointed to one painting and said, ‘This is the best piece in the collection.’” Plath later bought the work and donated it to The Ames Library, where it hangs today.

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Students Awarded Scholarships for Study Abroad

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Two Illinois Wesleyan University students, Brad Tieche and Frank Alonso, have received scholarships that will help offset their Spring 2009 semester study abroad expenses.

Tieche, a senior accounting major from St. Charles, Ill. who will study in Barcelona was awarded a $3,500 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. The Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students to pursue academic studies abroad. Such international study is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world. Award amounts will vary depending on the length of study and student need.

Alonso, a junior psychology major from Elmhurst, Ill. who will study in Japan received a $5,000 Freeman Awards for Study in Asia Scholarship (Freeman-ASIA). Freeman-ASIA is designed to support American undergraduates with demonstrated financial need who are planning to study overseas in East or Southeast Asia. Freeman-ASIA Award recipients are expected to share their experiences with their home campuses to encourage study abroad in Asia by others, and to spread greater understanding of Asian peoples and cultures within their home communities.

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Famed Historian to Speak at Founders’ Day Convocation

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – James Horton has lent his expertise to museums across the nation, but has spent his career bringing history directly to people as an advisor, Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer and consultant for The History Channel.

An historian emeritus with the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution, Horton will deliver an address titled “Abraham Lincoln: Slavery and the Civil War” for Illinois Wesleyan University’s annual Founders’ Day Convocation at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18 in Westbrook Auditorium in Presser Hall (1210 Park St., Bloomington). Horton’s visit is supported in part by the David and Ann Lawrence Speaker’s Series. The event, which is free and open to the public, honors the 30 founders who signed the charter for the University in 1850.

The Benjamin Banneker Professor Emeritus of American Studies and History at George Washington University, Horton has been on the national and international stage for decades, working toward the preservation and understanding of history. He was the senior Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Munich, Germany, from 1988 to 1989, and has also lectured throughout Europe, and in Thailand and Japan. In 1991, he assisted the German government in developing American Studies programs in the former East Germany. Two years later, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt appointed Horton to the National Park System Advisory Board, and in 1996 he was elected board chair. His work for the board included serving as senior advisor on historical interpretation and public education for the director of the National Park Service.

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